Native American Students In Utah Are Getting Pushed Out Of School At Alarming Rates

[KamaAina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/26/native-american-students-utah_n_7444180.html

Native American students in Utah may be getting referred to law enforcement agencies before they even know how to read.

Fifty-five Native American students in kindergarten through sixth grade were referred to police officers during the 2011-2012 school year in Utah. By comparison, not a single white student in this age group received this action, even though the state educates significantly more white kids, according to a new report from the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law Public Policy Clinic.

Around the country, Native American students face disproportionate rates of suspension, expulsion and referrals to law enforcement, according to 2011-2012 data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the most recent school year available. These disparities are particularly acute in Utah, the new research reveals, even though Native students are only a small portion of the state's student population....

These severe punishments serve to push students away from school and help contribute to the so-called "school-to-prison" pipeline for Native students, the report states. Thirty-one percent of Native American students in Utah dropped out of high school in 2014, compared to a 15 percent state average.

[AuntPatsy]

1. The racism in Canada years ago against Indians was horrific....we are no better...

[jwirr]

2. This is horrible. Utah does not surprise me. A lot of religious involvement. Very strict. Once was

involved in weekend activities on a rez south of Souix City Iowa. Our students went in casual dress and played with the kids.

There was also a couple who taught out in the school but did not live there - dressed to the hilt -suit and tie- very upset that we did were not and that we sat with the kids on a street corner talking. The couple insisted that we should be acting like good role models. BTW they were from the Mormon Church. If this is the kind of strictness they are enforcing in those schools it does not surprise me that Native American children are in trouble. Most tribes are very informal in rearing their children.

Sometimes it is justified. My little kindergarten grandson got expelled for 3 days. When he told us what he had been doing we grounded him at home as well. He and a friend beat up on a little boy who was new at the school just because he was new. He now knows that is not allowed.

[KamaAina]

3. "Most tribes are very informal in rearing their children."

That's very interesting. Sort of like the opposite of the "Tiger Mom". And yet it seemed to have worked quite well until we showed up.

[jwirr]

5. Even now it works okay. The trick is to be sure that the really dangerous things are still a no no.

Most of the tribes are rural and often isolated. They do not need the strict rules in a situation like that.

That couple was an example of the Biblical idea that the child should be whiter than snow (pure). They would take the children out of the Native home to indoctrinate them - into being white.

Edited to say that they were not the only church to do that.

[Stellar]

4. Teaching starts in the home.

Good for you!

We need more of this gentlemans protest.

[jwirr]

7. My guess is that this young Native American is merely trying to get them to realize the hypocrisy of

their stance on immigration. Good for him.

[Sheepshank]

6. The LDS Bretheren really need to look into this disparaging treatment of their special Lamanites

I definitely think that there are white persons who are so freaking threatened by their diminishing role as the privilidged race, they will do whatever it take to keep others "down" where they belong.

[jwirr]

8. Good point. And so true.